Anchorage, Valdez & Farewell to Alaska

Hello Again and greetings from the Yukon Territory.

Well, we've made the loop from Whitehorse, YT around through Alaska and back to Whitehorse. It took 51 days and 2,675 miles (coach only) and boy did we see a lot. So now an update on our latest adventures.

We attempted to spend a few days in Anchorage after leaving the Kenai Peninsula but the campground we picked was noisy. Our site backed up to a railroad grade crossing and the trains ran 16 hours a day. Now, I know what you think, hell he retired from a railroad that shouldn't bother him, but try sleeping 25' from an active crossing ! Not fun. Also, the local power plant turbines produced a whistle that would keep even the devil himself awake and drive a sane person crazy. Plus, they wanted $38 a night. Sorry.

We headed north and found a small c/g in Palmer that charged $25 and was only about 40 minutes from downtown Anchorage. We've been in Anchorage before (2004) and there was not much we didn't see. So we got the Honda serviced, visited Costco and toured one downtown museum; enjoyed a few relaxing days and headed on for Valdez.

Valdez, the city that Joesph Hazelwood made famous is a small, non-descript town that was completely destroyed by the 1964 earthquake and rebuilt 4 miles from it's original location. There are more campgrounds than stores; the city buildings are all the same style and the harbor is the center of life. The USCG station in Valdez has the USCG Cutter "Long Island" berthed in the harbor.
USGC Cutter, Long Island

The view from our coach @ C/G in Valdez.

The marine ferry has a new terminal building and across the bay is the terminus for the Pipeline and the tankers load daily. The area is off limits to everyone except employees.
Looking across the bay to the pipeline terminus.

The city of Valdez

Valdez harbor

The site of "old" Valdez

The fish hatchery in Valdez and the salmon returning to spawn.

The route through Thompson Pass approaching Valdez and the mountains surrounding it are spectacular but the town is unimpressive. We saw the sites, watched the boats and the tankers and marvelled at the amount of salmon that had returned to spawn at the hatchery and moved on for the trek out of Alaska.
Thompson Pass

Wellington Glacier, enroute to Valdez

Wellington Glacier

We traveled north out of Valdez and turned east on the Tok Cut-off. Our last night in Alaska was spent at MP 72.5 on the highway and it really turned cold and in the morning we woke up to several inches of snow on the mountain tops. A sign that winter is not far away.
Fresh snow on the mountain tops, near Tok.

A beautiful sight.........but cold.

Our rest area campsite.

We crossed the border back into Canada on August 12th and headed for Whitehorse, YT. We're spending a weekend here while we celebrate our 40th anniversary and visit some places we skipped on the way up, then on Monday head south.

We're 1600 miles to Vancouver and there are some interesting sights along the way in British Columbia but I don't expect it to be as exciting as Alaska.

We'll talk again soon,

Gene & Laurie